Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media

Announcements

The journal invites submissions on all aspects of new media use in the region.

The journal is published twice per annum; submissions are accepted continuously. However for publication of materials in the autumn issue of Digital Icons the deadline for submissions is 1 September, for the spring issue the deadline is 1 February.

Forthcoming Special Issues

CFP Issue 18 Digital Trauma in Eastern and Central Europe

Submissions are invited to a special issue on Digital Trauma in Eastern and Central Europe. The special issue, edited by Anna Menyhért and Mykola Makhortykh, looks into the ways in which cultural and literary trauma is processed in the framework of digital memory and media studies. By analyzing how the 21st century digital environment influences both personal and collective trauma processing in local, national and trans-national communities within Europe, the issue strives to contribute to a better understanding of the link of current cultural developments to the collective traumas of the past in post-socialist countries.

The special issue derives its rationale from the ‘Trauma Studies in the Digital Age’ workshop, which was organized in Amsterdam at UvA and NIAS, in the framework of Anna Menyhért’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie project. We encourage further submissions, and suggest that those interested have a look at the project’s website, including the workshop, to have a better idea of possible themes: http://www.traprodig.humanities.uva.nl

Submissions are invited to a special issue on women and technology in post-Soviet contexts.

The issue aims to consider what it means to be a female programmer, online activist, or digital artist in the era of global connectedness through the internet. According to a study conducted by HackerRank (blog.hackerrank.com), of the ten nations with the best women coders three are Eastern European/post-Socialist countries, which prompts the question whether female programmers are better off in post-socialist countries than they are in Silicon Valley? Against this background, the issue also seeks to examine feminist activism and women’s creative work online. Did Pussy Riot pave the way for transnational feminism to grow through online communications? What is the role of internet-based ‘cyber feminism’ (feminist theorizing, critiquing and exploiting the internet and new media technologies) for the grass-roots work of women’s groups across the post-socialist space and beyond? How do women artists, writers, and poets advance their careers through online networks and computer programming?

The proposed articles can include (but are not limited to) the following themes:

Female coders

Women in software developer communities

Gender representation of hacktivism

Women and artificial intelligence

Feminist groups online

Feminist internet sites

Female gamers/women in the gaming industry

Women’s online poetry and literature

Women in digital art

Female idols on Runet

Female pioneers of Runet

Women in the history of computing and internet in the post-Soviet context

Please send an abstract of 350 words and a short bio to the issue’s guest editors Drs Saara Ratilainen (saara.ratilainen@helsinki.fi) and Mariëlle Wijermars (marielle.wijermars@helsinki.fi) by 15 October 2017. Notification on acceptance will be sent by 20 November and the deadline for full articles is 31 January 2018.